A few weeks ago…
Cordelia Clark is having dinner with her husband on the night of her first round Blast from the Past match. Through it all, Cordelia was able to pin Serena Riot to effectively carry Justin Smith of all people to the second round. She’s barely touching her dinner, however, and her husband is realizing that she’s not in the victory mood that one would think that she’d be in.
“Everything good, Cordy?” Brian asks her.
“It’s so weird…” Cordelia mutters in response.
“What’s weird?”
“I didn’t think I’d ever come back to the Sin City Universe or anything. I didn’t think that I would ever have the heart to, not after what happened with SCU and how gutting that was for me. But being in an SCW ring under those circumstances was pretty much a bizarre feeling. I didn’t feel like a fish out of water or anything.”
“I’d say that was Serena…” Brian says with a laugh. “I knew that you were going to find a way to steal a win for your team though. I just knew it. You think you can do that for three more rounds?”
Cordelia scoffs at the very idea.
“No…”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“You can only carry a sack of shit so far, you know?”
“The farther you carry him, the better you look. Honestly.”
Cordelia rolls her eyes at this.
“But this whole thing is bittersweet…”
Brian is caught off guard by Cordelia saying this.
“I felt pretty sad after that match was over. Once all the glory of the victory just faded away, I just couldn’t help but feel for what I don’t have anymore. SCU was my first home in this business and as much as I hate to say it, I was definitely missing it once the bright lights faded.”
“This is the first time you’re actually coming face to face with that…”
“Tell me about it…” Cordelia says with a pause as she begins to reflect on the day after the final SCU show, when she realized it was all but over.”
The day after SCU’s final show… (FLASHBACK)
Cordelia was in no mood to celebrate her massive win over Andrea Hernandez, former SCW Bombshells World and Internet Champion, whatsoever even if that was one of the biggest wins of her career up to that point. Life wasn’t going great for Cordelia at this point. In addition to SCU going down the drain, she wasn’t in the best place with her sister Morgan Clark and she was still dealing with the seemingly never ending sexual harassment from Hayley Halsey.
But she’s not alone. Former SCU wrestler Chelsea LeClair is with her and she’s venting to her more than anything.
“It doesn’t seem fair that the first company that I ever considered home is gone.”
“I know the feeling… kind of…” Chelsea admitted. “GCW, my first company, is still alive, but at the same time, the company that I considered my first home has been overtaken by a virus that would’ve held me and many others down when it comes to making progress up the ladder. I hated when I realized I had to leave that place for good for the sake of my career. But, you have a bright future. I’m not saying that SCU is going to be meaningless in the end, but you’ve got so much of your career to look ahead to.”
“I know…” Cordelia says with a sigh. “I just wish it didn’t have to die. I felt like I was really starting to regain my stride again after I beat Morgan and got my revenge on her for all the shit she put me through. It just doesn’t seem fair. I never imagined my life or my career without the place.”
Chelsea gives Cordelia a sympathetic sigh.
“There’s only so much that you can control…”
“At least you got to go out with the GRIME World Championship…” Cordelia says to Chelsea, who is conflicted in her own right as to whether she should be happy about that or not. “...I on the other hand, ended up with nothing.”
Chelsea suddenly glares at Cordelia, which catches the then-sweetheart off guard.
“Did I say something wrong?” Cordelia asks politely.
“Not really, but beating Andrea Hernandez, my best friend by the way no matter how you feel about her, isn’t ‘nothing’... especially when she was coming off of a big winning streak in SCW. It’s a big deal, Cordelia. It’s going to be a big gain for your career. Nobody knows more than I do the star that SCW missed out on when it comes to Andrea.”
Cordelia doesn’t know how to respond. She is quite confused as to how Chelsea could say such positive things about someone like Andrea who had her massive attitude problem back then. Cordelia rolls her eyes, but unfortunately for her, Chelsea caught her in the act.
“Something that I have learned, Cordy… and this is something that you are going to learn as well someday… is that the business can be extremely cruel at times and the very worst parts of it can turn you into someone you never intended to be or wanted to be… and more often then not, someone who you swore you would never become.”
“Are you saying that’s what happened with Andrea? Because leading up to last night, all she was doing was bullying me and saying I’d never amount to anything. You know how she was for most of her SCW career and in my book, she was like that long enough to prove that’s who she really is as a person.”
“Do you realize the context of what she went through, Cordelia?”
“She lost the world title to Evie Jordan, her dad died, she buckled under all that… that’s about the gist of it.”
“That’s what you heard, but the truth is, that was the tip of the iceberg. She was treated with hatred. People rooted for her to fail. Evie went out of her way to bury her and say all of this horrible shit to her and about her that should’ve gotten her sued. I’m not saying something like this is going to happen to you one day and I sure as hell HOPE that something like this doesn’t happen to you. But the truth is, you might end up going down a path you never thought you’d go down because you experience something horrible and you don’t know how else to handle it…”
“I’m too smart to ever have that happen to me…” Cordelia tells her fellow former SCU alumni. Of course, Cordelia had no idea that a couple of years down the road, Chelsea’s soft prediction ended up coming true.
“Andrea’s not the horrible person that you think she is and beating her IS a big deal. It’s not ‘nothing’. I understand that losing your first home hurts, but you can’t let that cloud your judgment. I understand that you want to sign somewhere as soon as you can to replace SCU and everything but don’t rush into a decision, alright?”
“Sure…” Cordelia says. “I’m sorry if I seem off…”
The SCU memories are starting to flood back, from the undefeated streak that she started out with, to winning the SCU TV Championship for her first mainstream title, to dethroning and silencing Angel Kash and her posse to win “the big one” for the first time at such a young age, to beating her sister and gaining revenge on her and finally, the win over Andrea on SCU’s last show. She’s even crying a little bit at this point and Chelsea wraps an arm around her. Inside, she’s really feeling as if she lost something that really meant a great deal to her.
“No, it’s fine! I totally understand. You’re going to have a great career, I promise you that. You just need to keep your head up and avoid making some big mistake that is going to have you going down the wrong path.”
Chelsea comforts Cordelia a little bit more and she’s starting to feel a little bit better… even if she’s feeling the horrific sting of losing a place that meant so much to her.
Back to the current moment…
“I had to confront those feelings all over again…” Cordelia says to her husband, who nods with understanding.
“Now I get why that wouldn’t be easy.”
“SCU going down is one of my biggest regrets.”
“Why would it be your regret, Cordelia? You’re not the one that made the decision to shut down the place. You didn’t have the power to keep it going. You didn’t have the power to shut it down. You have nothing to regret when it comes to that place closing shop.”
“Remember when HYBRID called me the next day?” Cordelia asks.
“Yeah, I remember.”
Cordelia’s anger is starting to become stronger when she thinks about the company she replaced SCU with. Even though the place has been gone for a few months now, HYBRID Wrestling is still a thorn in Cordelia’s side that she is doing the best that she can to move past and get over. Her sadness over SCU is replaced by the anger she is still carrying toward that company.
“I told you that it would be a bad idea to sign with that company.”
“If SCU never died, I would’ve never had to…” Cordelia says with a scoff that carries a bit of disbelief with it. “I never wanted to go somewhere else. SCU is the place I wanted to stay.”
“But after what happened with your cousin, it was still a terrible idea to go there.”
“You think I don’t know that now? I thought my cousin was the problem and it turns out, it was that fucking company. I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t in some way responsible for her eventual death and I hate that stupid bitch. I went there and it seemed okay at first but…”
Cordelia sighs.
“...it was never for me and it wasn’t long before I realized what my role was going to be there.”
February 2023
“Do you really want me to be honest about that company, sis?”
Cordelia, who is still in her sweetheart phase for the most part, is sitting on the living room couch with her sister Morgan Clark as they are talking about the company Cordelia signed with to replace SCU following their closure.
“I want you to be honest, Cordy. Because lately, I don’t know what has gotten into you when it comes to that place, but you are clearly not happy there. You’re definitely lashing out quite a bit and every time the camera comes on you, it seems like you’d rather be somewhere else. You know what happened with our cousin and I just want to tell you that if you don’t want to stay there, you can just leave. It might even be better for your psyche otherwise.
Once again, Cordelia receives a stern warning about her future later on from someone she was trusting in. But once again, Cordelia is too naive and stubborn to see this as a warning.
“I’m not leaving, Morgan…”
“Best I can tell by your body language, you clearly want to.”
“I’m not going to give those idiots what they want.”
Morgan is taken aback by what she just heard. She widens her eyes, not expecting such a statement from someone as sweet as Cordelia was at this point in time.
“Did you just call them idiots?”
“Are you deaf?”
“Cordy, don’t be rude!”
Cordelia is taken aback now and she’s immediately regretful.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. I’m not going to quit, even if I should. I’m going to prove them wrong. I feel as if they don’t believe in me. SCU? Gosh, they believed in me right out of the gate and gave me every chance they could for me to prove myself. But HYBRID? I’m just canon fodder for their ‘big stars’...”
“Cordy, you know that’s not true…”
“So why is it that it never goes well for me when I go up against a big name? Did you not see what happened in that briefcase match? It’s always some ‘big name’ getting one over on me at my expense. I’m getting tired of it! I’m better than this.”
Neither Cordelia or Morgan are realizing that this was the first instance, and the first sign, of Cordelia’s sweetheart nature beginning to fade away.
“You’re just young and inexperienced and…”
“I don’t WANT to hear that! I HATE hearing that! I’m TIRED of people throwing my youth and inexperience in my face! HYBRID doesn’t see a damn thing in me! They just see me as someone to fill up the card while their big names get all the glory in the end. I’m not supposed to be just as big, if not a bigger star, than those “big names” or their butts that they shove their heads up…”
“CORDY!”
“WHAT?”
“Having this ‘woe is me’ approach to that company isn’t how to go about things.”
“You can’t talk, Morgan. This really is kind of SCU’s fault. I wouldn’t be there if they were still alive. But the real truth is that I hate that company. I hate HYBRID. I don’t fit in with anyone there. There’s no locker room camaraderie. I don’t feel like the guy that runs the place has enough passion for the business. I don’t think he likes me. I think he just offered me a contract just to fill up his roster than see any real value in me. Why did SCU have to close? UGH! I don’t know how much longer I can force myself to wrestle for that place.”
“You should leave…”
“Not before I prove them wrong…” Cordelia says, causing her sister to bite her lower lip and thus, showing her disapproval in the most subtle way she can.
“I hope you know what you’re doing…” Morgan says as she finally leaves Morganna alone.
Back to the present moment…
“I kind of think your sister was right…” Brian says.
“Debatable. I see your point and I think I even see the point she was trying to make. But if I never went through that experience, as much as I hated it, I wouldn’t have become a smarter, stronger wrestler. It’s because of dealing with the bullshit that I did there that I finally snapped out of my ‘sweet and stupid’ phase and started to live in the reality of the business. Still…”
Cordelia has a bit of a sad, sullen look on her face for the moment.
“...I’m not over the heartbreak from SCU’s closure. That’s why I came back…”
Even her own husband seems stunned by the revelation he just heard.
“If by some fucking miracle, I am able to carry the sack of shit through three more rounds, I know in my heart I can beat one of Kayla or Julianna. Hell, I beat Julianna once… before she caught fire when she signed here anyway. I could be the SCW Bombshells World Champion and I can get that closure over what’s been haunting me for a good while now. I’ll get that closure I wanted. Does that explain everything to you?”
“That it does.”
“Brian, I love you but I want you to make me this one promise.”
“Shoot.”
“This conversation never happened. You’re one of the only people I am still willing to be vulnerable to these days.”
“You can pull that miracle, Cordy…”
Cordelia finally smiles through the pain she’s still dealing with.
“I’ll pull as much of a miracle as I can…”
Cordelia can finally relax and bask in the win she was able to pull in the first round of the Blast from the Past tournament.
But the question is?
With the uphill battle carrying someone she would consider the worst male wrestler in SCW?
How many miracles does she have left in her?
May 17, 2024
Cordelia finds herself at a train station somewhere in Turkey that is empty at this point in the night and she’s in a determined mood as the camera is on her. She’s got that angry glare in her eye again as she remembers the win that she got in round one.
“Well, I knew I’d pull at least ONE miracle even though so many people were doubting me. I’m not upset at people doubting me considering who my partner is, but at the end of the day, I beat the SUPPOSED BIG NAME and because of me and me alone, Justin Smith actually got to the quarterfinals of the Blast from the Past tournament. Who the fuck would’ve thunk it right? I might actually be good at this miracle worker thing after all! Hell, why stop there? Why can’t we just win the whole thing? Okay, let’s not get too far into dreamland here. After all, there’s three rounds left to go and there’s no question in my mind that it’s going to get harder with every round. However, when you look at the matchup that is happening on the men’s side… moving on to the final four of the tournament isn’t EXACTLY a pipe dream.
Justin may be the sack of shit that he is, but certainly he can handle Artie, right? Certainly he can match up at least decently with a guy that just barely started with his career… right?
Right?”
Cordelia takes a nervous pause as the expression on her face and the fact that she just bit her lower lip all but proves that she’s not completely buying into the idea that the men’s side of the match just might be closer than one would think.
“But before I get into Reznik, let me say a little something to Justin Smith. You’re fucking welcome, you sack of shit! Because of me, you doubled your victory total and you managed to finally get one over Eddie Lyons even though it was me that ended up getting the pin at the end. I’m the reason we’re here. I’m the reason why we end up in the semifinals if we so happen to advance that far and to think that going into that match, you were whining and bitching up a storm about me. You were talking about how you don’t trust me.
Yet, the woman that you don’t trust is the reason why you won.
But then right after that, you say the one thing that justifies my attitude toward someone like you being my partner for this tournament: talking about how you’d rather be a perennial loser in SCW than a top star in SCU. Are you fucking kidding me? You’d rather be a LOSER in SCW than a WINNER in an equivalent promotion?: Are you one of those idiots that saw SCU as a “developmental territory” top SCW like so many people thought it was back in the day when it was made very clear in company documents and promotional materials that SCU and SCW were equal under the same umbrella? NO WONDER YOU’RE A FUCKING LOSER! You don’t understand a FUCKING THING about how the business works! Let me say it louder for the dumbasses on the roster that share the same line of thinking.
SCU! WAS! NEVER! SCW’S DEVELOPMENTAL!
I completely understand that the likes of Krystal Wolfe and Ariana Angelos have made SCU look god awful with their constant shit on a regular basis in SCW these days, but for fuck’s sake! Anyway Justin, I don’t want to go off into a tangent. The rest of your promo pretty much proved you were hopeless. It’s like you don’t even TRY! Artie, I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know you personally. You’re obviously green as green can come, but all I am going to say to you is that you can very much handle someone like Justin Smith. I don’t know your potential or your talent on the fullest scale, but one on one? You can totally kick his ass.
But here’s the thing Artie…
…here’s where the reality of the situation bites you in the ass…
This isn’t a one on one. It’s a mixed tag.
OBVIOUSLY I’m not beating you in the middle of that ring because I can’t due to the mixed tag rules.
But Justin doesn’t have to beat you in order for me to advance to the semifinals.
I just have to find a way to beat Kallie Reznik and for your sake, Artie, you’re better off staying on the apron and being in the match as little as possible. If I keep Justin out of the fucking ring as much as I can, then we WILL win this match. Now, to those that are watching this… please give me a reason why I can’t beat someone like Kallie Reznik.
Because of her association with Finn Whelan who is one of the biggest names in the men’s division?
If this is your logic for why I can’t beat Kallie, then check yourself. I’m not facing Finn. I’m facing her! Kallie has less experience than I do, even. Her association doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. So tell me why I can’t beat her? What makes her so fucking special that she’s considered one of the rising prospects of the Bombshells division? I want an explanation for that right now.
What makes you so special, Kallie? Losing to fucking Harper Mason? Really?
You lost to Harper fucking Mason on a fucking supercard? Holy shit, you should be ashamed of yourself. Someone like Harper Mason is someone that a Finn Whelan associated wrestler should be eating for breakfast and you couldn’t even beat her on the biggest stage under the brightest lights? I don’t want to hear that you had beaten her prior to that. What matters is what happened in the most recent encounter and you couldn’t even beat Harper Mason. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself for losing to someone like that. In fact, I’m shocked that Finn didn’t drop you like a bad habit after that because by losing to someone like Harper Mason, you embarrass and shame someone like him and I didn’t see someone that seemed to give too much of a damn of what I just talked about and I have to be honest with you here, Kallie.
I didn’t see the fire in you when you were fighting your Blast from the Past first round match. Sure, you got the win. You’re in this match now. But I didn’t see someone that was motivated enough. The only reason why you even advanced to this match here is because the Bombshell you were facing was a sack of shit herself in Bea Barnhart. You face any women’s wrestler worth a fuck, and you’re not advancing. You were so lucky in the draw that you managed to get perhaps one of the five worst Bombshell wrestlers in Sin City Wrestling history.
I didn’t hear that fire in your words going into that match.
Hell, you even said that suffering your first loss… TO FUCKING HARPER MASON… “wasn’t a huge deal”.
It’s a HUGE DEAL!
You know why? Because all of that momentum that you were building up, all of that credibility you were slowly gathering as you won your matches, your mystique, your aura… it’s GONE!
You suddenly don’t seem like such a big deal anymore losing to someone like that! Your performance at Blaze of Glory… I don’t know if you thought you were too good to face her or if you underestimated her or what the fuck… it was pitiful.
It was absolutely pitiful!
But it’s not a “huge deal” that you lost to someone like that? Give me a fucking break, Kallie! If your first loss was to a Kayla Richards or a Julianna DiMaria, that’s one thing. Losing to two main event caliber Bombshells isn’t going to kill you or flush your credibility down the toilet or anything like that.
But FUCKING HARPER MASON?
Are you fucking SERIOUS?
Honestly, had you lost to Bea Barnhart in round one, it really wouldn’t have been as much of a damn surprise as people would’ve made it out to be.
So tell me Kallie…
‘
Why are you suddenly being gifted a spot in the semifinals?
Why are people automatically assuming that you and Artie are going to be there?
Because of my ‘lack of SCW experience’?”
Cordelia rolls her eyes through a brief pause.
“It’s definitely not it.
I know why people are automatically assuming that you’re going to be in the semifinals.
Because my partner is a sack of shit.
Even I can’t deny that logic.
BUT, there’s one whole flaw with that logic and that’s the fact that we got by round one to get to this point and who’s to say that it can’t happen again. I’d have to carry the ball and I’d have to figure out a way to overcome the uphill battle again, but if there is one person in this tournament that can pull it off, you’re looking at her. In the grand scope of this business, Serena Riot, on paper, is a bigger name than you are and I managed to beat her so you definitely cannot be going into this thing thinking that you have an automatic bye to the final four. If someone like FUCKING HARPER MASON can beat you, then so can I: pure, simple fact!
You were exposed as someone that was overrated the whole time and should I win this match and pull yet another miracle, then that’ll expose you even more! Hell, let’s continue to be honest with each other. You and Artie aren’t going much farther if you win.
But I’ll fight like hell to make sure that you don’t. This Sunday I’ll be hopping aboard the miracle train again and I will somehow, someway, continue to do the fucking impossible and when it’s all said and done, because of me and me alone, I will be moving on to the semifinals of the Blast from the Past tournament!
Yes, I said “I”.
Not “we”.
There is no “we”.
It’s literally just ME… because my partner?
Holy hell, he’s so fucking HORRIBLE that he’s barely even HALF a fucking wrestler. This is ultimately the second of what amounts to FOUR handicap matches for me. Justin Smith is just a body that walks around and thinks he’s wrestling, but is nothing more than a big sack of shit that is so big that he’d reverse deforestation in the Amazon in one go with how rotten of fucking ELEPHANT DUNG he is!
I already won round one on my own and I’m going to do it again. Somehow, fucking someway, I am going to singlehandedly win this tournament and basically cement myself as one of the greatest Bombshell competitors in the history of this tournament all in one go.
So if you’re not on the ‘miracle train’, book your fucking tickets. Because I’m riding it all the way to the end… and maybe if I’m lucky, that train will run Justin over and he has to be replaced in the next two rounds by an actual wrestler…
…you know what? Fuck it…”
Cordelia literally folds her hands in prayer.
“God, please let Justin Smith get hit by a train so that I can have a better partner for this tournament. Please, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE let him get hit by a train. Amen!”
Cordelia lets out a final sigh.
“...fucking sack of shit…”
Cordelia shuts off the camera.
